Immigrant advocates outline plans for May 1 march

Chicago TribuneCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Nearly a year after hundreds of thousands of demonstrators filled Grant Park, immigrant advocates announced plans Thursday for another massive march next month, one of a number of May Day protests planned in Chicago and other U.S. cities.

Where last year's marches took aim at federal legislation that would have made assisting illegal immigrants a felony, this year's May 1 march will call for a moratorium on workplace immigration raids that have occurred nationwide in recent months, organizers said.

Demonstrators also will demand that U.S. citizenship be opened to the country's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants, an element in several competing proposals introduced this year in Congress.

After Congress failed to pass immigration reforms last year, Democrats and Republicans are again split over the proposals, leaving advocates uncertain whether immigration reforms will pass this year.

"Reform is being delayed while raids are being increased. This is backward and immoral," said Janaan Hashim, spokeswoman for the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, during a news conference Thursday in Pilsen.

The council is one of several organizations, churches and neighborhood organizations helping to coordinate the Chicago march.

The demonstration is set to begin at 12:30 p.m. May 1 with gatherings in Humboldt Park and in Pilsen. Demonstrators will then walk along Ashland Avenue and meet at 1:30 p.m. at Union Park on the Near West Side.

From there, they plan to march along Washington Boulevard to a 3 p.m. rally in Daley Plaza.

Like last spring's marches, organizers plan to promote the event heavily on Spanish radio and other ethnic media, which could lead to another large turnout. Buses are being chartered in cities as far away as Aurora, said Jose Artemio Arreola, one of the organizers.

"We don't want to talk about numbers, other than to say that everybody should come out," Arreola said. "The difference this year is that we now have the infrastructure in place. People are easier to reach and they only have to ask: Where and what time?"